What software are you guys using? Sadly I have been using photoshop CS2 and just recently downloaded the trial version of CC. I want to upgrade the software just not sure with all these new adobe subscription apps, which one is worth it.

What software are you guys using? Sadly I have been using photoshop CS2 and just recently downloaded the trial version of CC. I want to upgrade the software just not sure with all these new adobe subscription apps, which one is worth it.

The PS + LR photography pack is the most popular one and I think it is offered at a decent cost as I upgraded often before. But I understand it feels expensive if you hold on to the same version for 5 years or so. There is also Affinity Photo which is cheap and very capable.

Not specifically. Most of the work was done in PS. Here's a list that you can search for tutorials for:

Cloning - I cloned out the palm trees and the sign on the left, distracting imperfections of the road, as well as some reflections on the car using the heal brush, spot healing brush, patch tool, and plain old copy and paste. There are lost of tutorials on painting out unwanted elements.
Masking - I used a mask to isolate the car and the road so I can adjust it separately.
Adjustment layers - I used many many adjustment layers like brightness/contrast, curves, saturation, levels, etc on dozens of parts of the photo. For example I used brightness adjustment layers to brighten just the wheels, or a cooling photo filter to reduce the yellow light on the car, an exposure adjustment layer for the road to make it darker etc. look up adjustment layer tutorials. Adjustment layers separate the men from the boys in PS. It's where the meat of the work is done at least for me.

You can see lots of magenta, and underexposure on the shaded side of the car. There are some distracting posts in the background that I wanted to lose as well as a major re-crop. There is a lot of negative space on the bottom, and I wanted more attention to go to the car and the mountain ridge behind it. I also wanted the lines of the road and plants to flow to the left of the screen, and the crop draws more attention to it. The color scheme I went for is sea green and gold, which I noticed I like seeing in Markus Wendler photos. I'm going for that "hyper real" look. More of what the mind sees than what it was in reality.

Looks great! The reflection in the mirror and the chromatic aberration against the mountain line is a bit distracting in your edit and I personally dislike these strange aspect ratios (if not used for a panorama). Other than than -

Looks great! The reflection in the mirror and the chromatic aberration against the mountain line is a bit distracting in your edit and I personally dislike these strange aspect ratios (if not used for a panorama). Other than than -

I agree.

Shooting a white car in full sun is a really tough shot. You really needed multi-shot HDR to have any hope of a great looking shot.

I'd probably crop in tighter and back off those adjustments, except raise shadows more and pull down whites.

Looks great! The reflection in the mirror and the chromatic aberration against the mountain line is a bit distracting in your edit and I personally dislike these strange aspect ratios (if not used for a panorama). Other than than -

Quote:

Originally Posted by dcstep

I agree.

Shooting a white car in full sun is a really tough shot. You really needed multi-shot HDR to have any hope of a great looking shot.

I'd probably crop in tighter and back off those adjustments, except raise shadows more and pull down whites.

Any white subject in full sun is a tough order.

Thanks for the feedback! I shot this with the intention of cropping 2.35:1 which is the cinescope anamorphic ratio of film. Coming from a theatrical film background, I like this ratio because it almost feels like a still from a feature film. I also use 16:9 a lot. I guess it's my own little way of inserting some of my own personal touches to my photos.

I've corrected as much as the CA as I could and fixed the reflection. I'll probably upload it tonight. As far as the adjustments, I'm not going for realism in this shot. It's what I saw in the moment and a vision of what I remember that I want to portray, like a hyper-reality. Some call it overdone processing. I'm sure there is a happy medium that I might find one day.